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Image 1 of 1 transcript
Civil Rights History Project Interview completed by the Southern Oral History Program under contract to the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History & Culture and the Library of Congress, 2013...

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And I’m very pleased to be speaking with Walter Tillow today in Louisville. If you could introduce yourself, tell us where you were born and your age, and then, we’ll start a...

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WT: My sister had a friend in school. My folks became friends with her family, her parents. You know, they became socially acquainted. [Clears throat] At that time, in New York, there...

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JB: Could we pause for a second? I’m— [Recording stops and then resumes] JB: We’re rolling. DC: Okay, fantastic. So, what—I guess if you could tell us a little bit about college...

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DC: Thank you. WT: That was like we responded to the times, you know. The sit-in movement broke out. You know, it made perfect sense. You know, segregation—why, you know, we had...

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DC: Went to the March, of local people? WT: Went to the March on Washington. And Forman indicated—I went back from the March to Atlanta. You know, Forman indicated— DC: Did you...

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DC: Okay. WT: It was not a SNCC project. As I say, Anne Braden, they had covered—SCEF had covered—the Bradens were friends with McCrackin in Cincinnati. Carl Braden, you know, when he...

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WT: Yeah. In other words, it was like a two-hour or three-hour—it could be anything. They’d make each individual—you had to go in there, and reading was a—so, if you couldn’t read,...

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WT: You know, it was a segregated audience. DC: Right. WT: So, they wouldn’t appear before a segregated audience. And that was a big, big stink, you know, because that was the...

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Part of the summer project was to send to the Democratic national convention in Atlantic City in August of ’64 an integrated delegation. In those years, from the southern states only white...

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DC: Right. WT: In Atlantic City, the Credentials Committee—the convention opened on Monday night. And so, the committees met, you know, before the convention. And the Credentials Committee met on Saturday and...

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WT: Well, because, you know, if you put Eastland or Ross Barnett as chairman of the delegation, it’s going to draw [1:00:00] attention. You know, and that was the strategy: not to...

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DC: Oh, they did? WT: They didn’t stay there. So, the seats were empty. You know, and then, when the final—the final affront was that the Freedom Democrats could get two seats...

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WT: You know, they would look at the rules or what-have-you. So, it kind of ended all-white delegations to the Democratic national convention. But there was—it was a major Rubicon for the...

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DC: Okay. WT: I’d say—you know, historians may, may—you know, you had the beginnings of kind of a bickering built into the situation, those that kind of are close to the Democratic...

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WT: Well, I mean, that wasn’t generally known. But, I mean, you know, that was the kind of pressure that was put on the Credentials Committee people, who were regular people, some...

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WT: The people that were interested in the Freedom Democrats in Mississippi, Lawrence Guyot, you know, they went back, I mean, they tried to work with the Freedom—[cellphone tone plays in background]...

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DC: Whites focusing on whites? WT: Well, they had, originally, Zellner—you know, Bob Zellner and Stembridge and, at that time, there was a guy, Sam Shirah, you know, came onboard, was kind...

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So, I don’t know how she got to Highlander. We met at Highlander and—yeah, she had worked in the—the Bradens got her involved, not the Bradens. Actually, she got involved in the...

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WT: And he mentioned Kunstler in every story, you know. I noticed that, just parenthetically, that the Charlotte newspapers apologized for its characterization of Local 22 Tobacco Workers Union. It was a...

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DC: And this was— WT: So, we stayed here because Kay was the closest daughter, you know. DC: Yeah. And, of course, this is Braden territory, so there’s some connection, I’m sure,...

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WT: Yeah. Well, I think, you know, what-have-you. But, as I say, my interpretation is—my interpretation, as I say, it could be challenged. It could be off. But it seems to me...

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WT: But they weren’t—Eisenhower, you know—but Frankfurter and Douglas, they weren’t Eisenhower appointees. Were they Eisenhower appointees? I don’t think they were. JB: No, they weren’t. Who was the chief justice that—?...